February 2015 on FB

February 1: After being SO sick for a week now, the Dr. called today and said my culture came back POSITIVE for strep! I knew it! I've NEVER had this bad of a sore throat my entire life! I seriously thought I was dying! Unfortunately, since there's not a pharmacy open on Sunday in Salmon, I will have to wait until tomorrow to pick up my antibiotics, so she prescribed me to take "shots of whiskey" until then!!! wink emoticon I'm so happy to have strep so I can FINALLY start taking some drugs to make me better!!! As it turns out, there is one benefit to having untreated strep for a week: since I've been unable to eat anything, I've lost 6 pounds in 7 days!

February 6: Jonah and Micah went to a basketball clinic this morning and loved it (thanks Camille!), and Ammon and Josh are heading to his basketball game at North Fremont this afternoon. Meanwhile, Kanyon can't stop hitting golf balls around the house and outside and won't stop saying things like "I just wish I could go golfing!" and "when will the golf course be open?". I'm glad I have active boys!!

February 10: 8 years ago today, I became a mom for the last time. Happy Birthday to my youngest son, Kanyon! He had a rough time as a baby and toddler, but he's made such huge progress and I'm so proud of him for his strength and courage amidst the challenges he's faced. One of his wishes came true for his birthday: he's been wanting a laptop for two years, and after receiving one as a gift from Josh & I (that he partially helped pay for), and playing on it for a few hours, he said (on his way to bed) "thank you for the half laptop/half tablet". Just hearing him acknowledge the gift on his own made my heart so happy in that moment!

February 11: [posted by Josh] Got kicked out of a basketball game for the 1st time ever tonight. I was ejected for clapping loudly and "looking" at the ref in a "threatening" way! Wish I had a loud enough voice to tell him what I really thought, then I could have at least made it worth it!

February 15: this week in a nutshell (good news first): Josh went to meetings in Boise for 3 days, Kala got her bangs dyed pink for the last time (it's been a year since I started doing it), Ammon shot a 3-pointer at his last basketball game of the season, Jonah got accepted to the Gifted & Talented program at school, Micah won a candy basket for all his readasaurus minutes, Kanyon turned 8 and went to scouts for the first time and celebrated his birthday & valentines day at school! Now for the not-so-good news: Josh got kicked out of a basketball game for his large gestures (clapping & pointing at the ref), Kala didn't get to have a "romantic" valentines dinner with Josh because Texas Roadhouse had a 2 hour wait, Ammon didn't get to play at the last home ball game, Jonah got sick & couldn't go to Kung Fu, and Micah didn't get accepted into G & T.

February 20: I am looking forward to and preparing for Kanyon's baptism tomorrow! It's at the Salmon LDS church at 11 if you wanna come!

February 21: Took Jonah out to Bertram's for his date night tonight. He wanted a big burger, and was full after just a few bites of it! Although, since we celebrated Kanyon's baptism by eating large baked potatoes with all the toppings just a few hours before we went out, that also may have contributed to his being full rather quickly, too.

February 25: Headed out of Salmon to visit my sister in Virginia!!! Taking Ammon on his first flight across the country to see his cousin Quinn, too! Should be a super fun trip; I'm so excited!!!

February 28: Ate the BEST. LUNCH. EVER! at Clyde's in Georgetown yesterday. First group photo of the trip while there:

Winter 2014/15 Top Ten

It was such a cold winter, but then overnight in the middle of February, spring came suddenly. Since it's the end of February, winter is officially done in my mind. Here's a recap of our Winter Top Ten list:

1. Find a Christmas tree in the mountains 

Completed 12/13; we got it rather late this year! We went up Perreau Creek on a Sunday afternoon, right after a snow-dusting on the mountains. It was beautiful, and we found a nice tree without much of a hike!


2. Spend Christmas morning at home

Completed 12/25. It was a fantastic day! We were so happy to have a white Christmas, since it snowed on Christmas Eve. We spent the morning opening gifts, the afternoon sledding, and the evening having a nice Christmas dinner with family.


3. Go skiing with Grandpa P. in Utah 

Completed 12/29, except Grandpa P. was unable to join us. During Christmas Break, we went to Utah and planned on going up to Beaver Mountain with Grandpa, but he wasn't feeling well, so we went skiing/snowboarding with the Perkins girls instead. Jen and the 3 older girls joined us on the slopes, and Kanyon had his first snowboarding lesson!


4. Celebrate New Year's Eve with the Tolman's 

Completed 12/31. The radio trivia contest was different this year, and it wasn't as much fun, but we ate lots of good food, opened gifts, talked, lit fireworks & sparklers outside, and finished a 1,000 piece puzzle together.


5. Celebrate Ammon's birthday 

Completed 1/11. Ammon turned 15, and we had a nice birthday with family and one of his friends to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately, we didn't do his requested family activity of going skiing/snowboarding due to illnesses. This was a big birthday for Ammon, though: he got his driver's license and contact lenses!


6. Go sledding 

Completed 12/24-12/30. We went on Christmas Eve at the Linger's, on Christmas Day by our house, the day after Christmas at South Fork, and a few days later to the same place again with the Williams'. It was great to use the new sleds they'd gotten as gifts during the week of Christmas Break!


7. Watch Ammon's basketball games 

Completed 2/13. Ammon played from December to mid-February. He had a good season, and scored a lot of 3-pointers to help his team.


8. Go skiing at Lost Trail
Unfortunately we never went skiing at Lost Trail as a family this winter. Ammon went a few times with friends, though. We might make it up there this spring (Ammon's will be going with the school)--it's still open a few more weeks and we have 3 free passes that still need to be used!


9. Celebrate Kanyon's birthday

Completed 2/10. He had a friend party this year at Blast-Off (a family fun center in Idaho Falls). A few days before his birthday, we had his birthday dinner, birthday cake, and he got to open his gifts since Josh was in Boise for work meetings on his actual birthday. It was a big birthday for Kanyon: he turned 8 and got baptized two weeks later!


10. Take a family outing to Jackson Hot Springs
Unfortunately, this never happened. We've never been, but I wanted to go, so I had planned on correlating this activity with a family ski day sometime, but since that never happened, this didn't either.

Never Say "Never"

There's a commercial on T.V. right now that I just love. Maybe you know of it...there's a guy who says to his friends while at some club "I will never get married", then he does. Next he says to his wife "we will never have one of THOSE" in reference to screaming kids, then they do, followed by "we will never have another kid", which of course they do. Then he says "we'll never live in the suburbs", and then they move there. Lastly he says "we'll never get a minivan", and then you see him buying one. Even if you haven't seen the commercial, I'm sure you get the point. I personally find this ad hilarious, because it's so true: I've said "NEVER" and then totally did what I said I wouldn't do!!! Except for me, it's not true in the sense of becoming a parent or living in the suburbs or owning a van (I mean, I've done all those things, but I also WANTED to do all those things). No...in this case, the whole "we'll never..." phrase has been true for Josh & I in regards to pets.

I always told Josh "we'll NEVER get a dog". Josh and the boys convinced me otherwise, and we got one in the fall of 2012.

Josh always said "we will NEVER have inside dogs". But then it got cold, like in the negative teens or twenties, one night in the winter of 2013, so we let our dog Tiki sleep in the house. Now she basically sleeps in the house EVERY night all fall, winter, and spring!

Josh used to say "we will NEVER let the cat in the house". But once our cat Torch noticed the dog coming in the house frequently, he wanted to come in too, and nobody argued. He doesn't sleep in the house overnight, though, he just likes to lay inside and take naps all day in the winter months. He particularly likes MY chair in the living room as his favorite spot to lay, and because he's so adorable when he sleeps, I totally let him.

I admit that I've never been overly fond of animals, but I really, really like this cat. He makes me so happy--and not because he cuddles with me or anything (which he doesn't), I just like looking at him when he's napping. I know that sounds bizarre, but he finds comfort and relaxation while laying in the most unusual positions, and I find it very amusing! When I see him napping in my chair, it produces a smile on my face or a giggle from my mouth, and I really like that he can make me happy by doing absolutely nothing! This past winter, I started taking photos of some of his cute sleeping positions, so even though I've often thought "I will NEVER be one of those people who posts online updates about their pets", I just can't resist!

He has a lot of superman positions. I think he dreams about flying!

Another superman position, this time
with his back legs laying flat in the opposite direction. 

When he heard the beep on my camera, he opened his eyes.
He had been sleeping with his paws sticking straight up!

 

Oh my gosh, he is tooooo cute! I swear it's like watching your
newborn baby sleeping, and the joy you feel to see them so peaceful!

That does NOT look comfortable to me!!

Sometimes he even likes to lay with his head & paws partially off the chair!

Moral of the story: Never Say "NEVER", because whatever you say won't happen most likely will!!

I'm 15 for a moment, caught between 10 and 20

Ammon turned 15 in January. His request for his birthday meal was "salad". That's a first!!! He's started liking green salad with Zesty Italian dressing on it recently. I asked him what he wanted to go along with the salad, and he replied "steak and mashed potatoes". That's more like what I was expecting from him!!!

Check out that big plate of salad!

For his birthday meal, Grandma and Grandpa T., Uncle Malachi, and Ammon's friend JJ joined us. After dinner, Ammon opened his gifts.

He got new church pants, dress shirts, ties, jeans, ski goggles, cash, nutella, and a new radio and seat covers for his truck.

Checking out the new radio that was installed in his truck.

 For dessert, he chose to have brownies with ice cream. I made homemade brownies (for the 2nd time in my life), and they turned out pretty good. I totally forgot to put the candles in the sheet of brownies, for us to sing "happy birthday" to him as he blows them out. Instead, I cut up the brownies and put them on everyone's plates before I remembered that we still needed to do that (whoopsie!), so using the few remaining brownie pieces that were left in the pan, I scooted them close together on a plate and then added the candles, and then we sang to him!

Thankfully, he didn't care! It was nice that JJ joined us for dinner and dessert--since he originally came over to have Ammon help him with a school homework assignment and was completely unaware that it was Ammon's birthday until he got to our house!!

It was Ammon's turn for a family party this year, and he chose for us to go skiing/snowboarding together at Lost Trail. We had every intention of going, but due to his basketball schedule, we couldn't go for two weeks after his birthday. Unfortunately, we didn't go then because I was sick and so was Ammon. So we decided to postpone it another week, but then I was even sicker with strep throat and Ammon had minorly hurt his knee at a basketball game the day before we planned to go and didn't feel like snowboarding. So then we said we would go President's Day weekend (an entire month AFTER his birthday), but by then, the snow in the valley had melted and he said he'd rather spend the day golfing with friends than skiing with the family. I felt bad that it never worked out for us to go for his birthday. This is the 2nd year in a row that his birthday ski/snowboarding plans have been affected because of illness!

However, the money that was going to be spent on a family ski day still got spent on him: he got his driver's license AND contact lenses in January!!! He once told me he would never wear contacts, but after much persuasion from me during the beginning of his basketball season, he changed his mind and really likes wearing them now! Also, he's been driving his truck to school a lot since he got his license, and he likes having the freedom of having his own transportation; but unfortunately for us, the car insurance rates have DOUBLED, which was a shock to our financial budget!

Wish Granted

On the last night of Christmas vacation, we were all wishing that it would last longer. It was seriously too short this year! Nobody felt ready to go back to school yet--and a lot of people from Salmon apparently felt the same, because I saw multiple facebook statuses saying as much! 

A little miracle happened that night: we received a few inches of super wet, dense snow. And then the weather turned freezing cold. So the next morning when the snowplows were plowing the heavy snow off the roads on the bar hill in town, the moisture left from the snow froze and turned the roads into sheets of solid ice. It was very dangerous, and the school decided to postpone the starting time by 2 hours. But then, the snowplows were even having difficulties plowing without sliding off the roads, so this created an unsafe situation for the school buses, so school was cancelled altogether that day. 

Everybody in our home was SOOOO happy that our wish had come true!! That day turned into a free vacation day, and we all enjoyed it immensely. I worked on a college class, and the boys played outside in the snow for hours, and by the end of the day, we finally felt ready to go back to school. It was a heavenly gift that we'd all appreciated! 

Ammon by the snow fort that he & Kanyon built.

Micah by the snow fort that he & Jonah built.

When we did go to school the next day, the kids were so excited to play in the snow at recess! I'm on every recess duty every day at school, and I like seeing when the kids are happy to be outside! It was fabulous packing snow, and a whole bunch of 2nd graders worked on building a snow fort together. Unfortunately, during the big kid recess, some 4th or 5th graders took apart their snow fort. That didn't stop the little guys. The next recess, they worked on building it again! It happened again the following day, so I got a picture of the crowd before recess was over in case the fort got broken again (which it did). I loved watching these guys be so resilient, and using teamwork to achieve a common goal!

Picking up the Pieces

I've debated about writing this post, because it demonstrates a bad mothering moment I had, and I'm ashamed to admit that I have them. But the truth is, I don't want to forget the important lesson that I was forced to remember during a weak moment of mine, so that knowledge outweighs any self-preservation I have in not wanting to post this. 

I love working on puzzles. When Josh and I were newlyweds, we worked on them quite often together on a table in our living room. But after we became parents, the puzzles only came out once a year: at Christmas time. Whenever I see an unfinished puzzle, I can't help but to pick up the pieces and try to finish what was already started. It's a quirk that I can't stop. On numerous occasions, I've walked into homes with a puzzle that's out on a table, and I'm instantly drawn to it and start working on it.  

This Christmas vacation, we worked on several puzzles: one that Uncle Ben had started in Stanley, one at my parents' home in Tremonton, and one at Josh's parents' house in Salmon on New Year's Eve. Each of these puzzles was 1,000 pieces, which is my favorite size--500 seems to be to easy, and anything over 1,000 feels too daunting. While we were in Stanley, Aunt Janet gifted us a 1,000 piece puzzle from their store. The boys helped me pick out a good one with a colorful scene of a small town with the focal point being an older storefront. 

We started the puzzle on New Year's Day, and the boys and I worked steadily on it for 5 days. One evening I was working in the kitchen and saw my whole family hunched over the puzzle board and thought it was so adorable, so I snatched a photo of them unaware.

After the 3rd day, I was the only one really invested in it anymore. It was a welcome distraction for me, and since I love puzzles so much, I didn't mind working on it alone. By Day 5, I was committed to finishing it and wanted to see it done. I worked on it for several hours straight, and got it 3/4 of the way done. I was feeling so good that most of it was done. Then I stopped to make dinner and have Family Home Evening, as it was Monday night. 

After the FHE lesson, Josh left to go into town to pick up Ammon from basketball practice. The boys went to the family room to pick out a game for us to play together. The puzzle was set up right in front of the game shelf (as you can see in the above photo). They discussed which game they wanted, and finally decided on what game we'd play together. Jonah and Micah came back to the living room where I was, and Kanyon said he'd get the game. But he couldn't reach the game because the puzzle table was blocking it. He figured he'd move the puzzle so he could get to it (although he could've gone under the table to reach it). But instead of asking for help, he picked up the table, and tried to carefully maneuver the puzzle board in order to reach the game that was behind it. In the process, he tipped the board too much and the puzzle started sliding off. I witnessed it from the other room where I was, and it seemed like it was all happening in slow motion. I yelled "NooOOOO! (in slow motion voice), got up, and ran into the family room. I grabbed the puzzle board from him, as he was completely unaware that he'd been holding it slanted and that the puzzle had been sliding off, because he was so focused on trying to hold it at the same time that he was picking up the game from off the shelf behind it. After I picked it up from his hand, I realized that almost half the puzzle had already fallen to the floor. Because I'd invested so much time in it that same day, it felt like a slap to the face. I looked at him, and started screaming, "WHY can't you EVER ask for help?!! LOOK what YOU did! I did ALL that work for NOTHING!! All YOU needed to do was ask for HELP!!". As soon as I was done screaming at him, he ran straight to his room, plopped onto his bed, and started loudly sobbing uncontrollably. 

I instantly felt terrible for screaming at him, but at the same time, I was so irritated that he didn't ask for help (he always struggles with asking for help; quite frequently he ends up throwing tantrums because he gets so frustrated when he can't accomplish something alone, but he refuses to ask for assistance).  I played a card game with Jonah and Micah as we listened to Kanyon howling from his room. I was hoping that Josh would return home soon, because he's usually so much more patient with Kanyon than I am. After I was done playing with Jonah and Micah, I texted him to see how much longer it would be before he would be home, but he said it was going to be about 10 more minutes. I'd already been listening to Kanyon sob and howl for 20 minutes by this point, and I couldn't take it anymore. So, I had an inner dialogue with myself to suck up my ego, and to see the situation for what it was really was: I did not want the fallen puzzle to be more important to me than my son. 

I went into his room, and he yelled at me to go away, but I didn't. I told him I was sorry for yelling at him, and again he yelled at me to go away. I told him I shouldn't have yelled at him, and that it was wrong of me. He sniffled and heaved and cried. I told him we were having ice cream for dessert, and told him he could come have some. He said he didn't want ice cream. I was sort of bribing him, because I know he loves ice cream, and I thought it would distract him from his crying, but I couldn't believe it wasn't working. "You don't want ice cream? But you love ice cream!". He responded (with sniffling breaths in between every 2 words), "I feel... like having... a root beer float... instead". "Okay, you can have a root beer float", I said, and I went and made him his request and he calmed down enough to eat it in the dining room.

When Josh came home and walked in the door, he immediately saw the puzzle all over the floor and asked "What happened here?". I told him it was a long story, because I didn't want to get into it right then with a freshly-calmed-down boy nearby. The boys helped Kanyon pick up the pieces after they were done with dessert, and we left the remaining half of the completed puzzle out on the table, but I refused to work on it anymore. And apparently, nobody else wanted to touch it after that, either. 

I don't like looking at unfinished puzzles, because I just want to see completion. But I left that unfinished puzzle out on the table for over a week, and every time I passed it, I looked at it without the urge to finish it, as it was a reminder to me that picking up the pieces of a broken, unfinished puzzle was a lot easier and a lot less important than picking up the pieces of a broken, damaged relationship. I hope that I never forget this lesson, just as President Thomas S. Monson said in 2008: "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved."  

New Year's

New Years felt different this year, although we did much of the same things. 

Our festivities on the afternoon of New Year's Eve with the Fiesta bowl game. Boise State played against Arizona. It was a very exciting game, and as I was making food for the night's celebrations, Josh and the boys were very involved in the game. Thankfully, BSU won! I was trying to get photos of the boys when they discovered that BSU was victorious, but they were all jumping up and down so much, it was hard to get a clear shot!!

Around 6:00 that evening, we headed down to Edward and Kathy's for food, games, puzzle-piecing, and the radio's 60's music trivia contest. We found a table large enough to put together the 1,000 piece puzzle Kathy had gotten, and went straight to work.

The 60's trivia radio contest was different this year: there's always a montage of short clips from songs that we have to figure out what the song is and who the artist is. We've won it for so many years in a row, that Cope (the guy who creates the radio contest in Salmon) decided to have two this year: one for our family, and one for the rest of the public. So basically, we weren't competing against anyone but ourselves. We had to be done by 11:00 instead of midnight, and the songs were harder this year, and we couldn't figure out the theme. We gave it a good effort, and everyone was using their technology and brains to come up with the answers. But it wasn't as fun, knowing that there was no one to compete against. It felt like wasted effort, because no matter how many answers we gave of the 12-song montage, we would win.

There was a lot of people over for the party that night. Gideon and Alyssa and Malachi were all in town visiting. Tim & Barb joined us for a few hours, as well as Frank & Dixie. Dixie was a huge help with the puzzle, too! I'm glad she came and worked alongside me for a while!

Because this was the first time since Christmas that we'd had more family members over, we decided to give Kathy her Christmas present then. We bought her a day-rafting trip down the Salmon River, and Josh's siblings contributed by signing up, too, so we could have a large family float this summer. Kathy has been dreaming of doing this for years, and we were so glad to finally have a good idea of something to gift her! She was ecstatic! I love how happy she looks in this photo!

And then after that, Gideon and Alyssa were showing her some photos they had of themselves from the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert that they were involved in as performing dancers. At the end of the pile of photos was a surprise: a picture of an ultrasound, announcing to Kathy and Edward that they are pregnant! That was such a fun surprise! I had no idea it was coming, or I would've been prepared with the camera for their initial reaction, but once I realized what was happening, I hurried to capture this one:

At midnight, we went outside with firecrackers and sparklers to ring in the new year. It was sooo freezing, so we weren't outside for very long! And not everyone wanted to brave the cold, either!

We finally finished the puzzle after 12:30am! It became a real group effort around midnight to accomplish the task, and Micah was the person to stick the last piece in!

The next day on New Year's, we went up with Josh's family to Janoa's for lunch. They had a bonfire by their house, and we cooked tinfoil dinners outside on it. It was something I've never done in the dead of winter before, but I liked spending time with some of the Tolman cousins: Janoa & Dennis, Trisa & Greg, and Sheryl & Frank and their kids, and Tim & Barb came, too.

We were there for a couple hours, then left in time for the boys to go to the new Hobbit movie matinee with Malachi. While they were at the movie, I got the house cleaned and more food made for a New Year's party of our own that night. Gideon and Alyssa, Malachi, Amanda, and John all came over for games and food. We played "Buzzword", and then we had such a hilarious time playing the game "Things" with them and our kids. The phrase of the night ended up being "drinking beer". It was in every round (and was started by Micah as the answer for what firemen do in between fires), and was used by several people to answer all the things categories, even for the one that was "what to NOT call your kids": beer drinkers!!! I just love playing that game! I get such a crack-up playing with my kids and adults simultaneously because they try to answer as an adult would, and it's so funny to finally discover what their answers were and be so surprised by their clever brains!

Speakers in Stanley and Skiers in Utah

Christmas Break was short for us this year: we are used to a 2 or 3-week break, and this year we only got 12 days off of school. It just didn't seem long enough!

Our annual trip to Stanley to visit the Forsgren's was on the weekend following Christmas. We went down on Saturday afternoon and stayed about 24 hours. When we arrived, the big cousins were just heading out to go sledding in the last remaining bits of daylight, but we opted not to since we'd already gone 3 times that week! When they came back, Aunt Janet made delicious pizza for dinner. Aunt Linette & Uncle John brought Judson to visit this year the same time we were there, and we'd taken Malachi with us, so there was quite a crowd! After dinner, we played the game "Telestrations" with several of the Forsgren kids, and had a hilarious time! I wanted that game SOOO bad for Christmas! On Black Friday, I looked for it everywhere it was on sale, but all were sold out. I have looked for it since, but not have not been successful in finding it (at a reasonable price). We had so much fun playing it together! That night, Ammon slept at the Forsgren's house, and the younger 3 boys slept in the hotel room with Josh and I (it's right next door to their house and country store).

The next morning was Sunday, and the 3 older boys wore some of their new clothes they'd received for Christmas to church. They looked so handsome standing by the beautiful view as seen from our hotel!

Josh and I were the speakers at church that morning. I talked about Tender Mercies (re-using the bulk of the same talk I'd given in August in our home ward, but relating different experiences this time), and Josh spoke about agency and responsibility. Malachi was the musical number, singing a song he'd written himself as he accompanied himself on the guitar. It was really neat, and I enjoyed all of church in Stanley. After church, we had a family get-together back at Janet's house. The boys played ping pong, I helped work on Uncle Ben's puzzle, and the ladies worked in the kitchen to make another delicious meal (funny enough, it was ham and potatoes, which we'd had every day since Christmas because we'd made so much there was a lot of leftovers! When we got to my mom's house later that same evening, she said "Would you like some ham and potatoes for dinner?" And my boys all groaned! It's my favorite meal in the world, but they were so happy when the ham and potatoes week was over).

We ate and visited for a bit before packing up and leaving for Utah to visit my family. It took a lot longer than I remember it being to drive from Stanley to Tremonton: about 5 hours! This was the first trip we'd taken together in our Suburban. We brought the Hobbit movies with us, because they are so long, so we thought it would be good for the boys to watch them on the drive. However, it was the first time we'd tried to use the built-in DVD player, and couldn't figure out how to get the sound other than through the cordless headphones (there was only 2 headphones and 4 boys). I read the manuals and couldn't get anything to project the sound, so they just had to share the headphones (which wasn't ideal). After we reached the Utah border, we encountered a white-out storm. It was dark by that time, the roads were slick and the snow was coming down thick. There were several slide-offs and Josh was white-knuckling it for a while, but thankfully we finally made it to Tremonton that evening, and all of us were happy to be out of the car!

We'd planned on going skiing with my dad the next day on Monday, but he wasn't feeling very well, and he decided to not go with us. Jen and her 3 older girls had been planning on joining us, though, so we met up with them at their house in Logan before heading up Logan Canyon to Beaver Mountain for afternoon skiing. This was the first time we'd all been together as a family skiing & snowboarding because this was the first time that Kanyon's come with us. We signed him up for snowboard lessons, and he was so excited (especially after practicing on Uncle Malachi's snowboard sled). 

Micah got to use his skis for the first time, and both he and Jonah did really well remembering a lot of what they learned last year when they went for the first time.

Jonah & Micah waiting in line for the ski lift.
We like that Beaver has 3-rider lifts!

They're both wearing their new goggles & hats they got from Christmas.
Tim & Barb gave them the hats: Micah's says "Dude" and Jonah's says "Boss". 

Josh thought if he wore all yellow he'd be easy to spot on the slopes. And he was!
But apparently another guy thought the same thing, so there were 2 men in all-yellow!

I love skiing! It was super cold, so I'm glad I bundled up!

Ammon went snowboarding, and hung out with Aspen and Liberty mostly, as Josh and I went skiing with the twins until Kanyon's lessons were done.

Ammon's all-new snowboarding wardrobe that he got
for Christmas: coat, pants, gloves, and helmet!!
I think he looks totally awesome!!

We were so happy to go with cousins Liberty, Abbie, and Aspen!

By the end of Kanyon's lesson, he was freezing! He was so cold, he was shivering. His instructor had taken him up to the ski lift for the first time, and they were about halfway down the mountain when she noticed him shaking, so she lifted him up and carried him the rest of the way as she snowboarded to the lodge. I took him inside and warmed him up by the fire and got him some warm food and drinks. The boys had also taken a break right before that inside, and good thing too, as Ammon was already exhibiting some white/gray marks on his nose from exposure to cold. Thankfully, they all warmed up, and felt better and returned to the slopes without permanent damage. Josh went with the twins some more on the ski lift, and Ammon went with Aspen again, but I just stayed on the bunny hill with Kanyon working on his newly acquired skills.

We all had a good time, and were glad that we were able to go together (we talked about going a second day, too, but decided to return home to Salmon the following day as Ammon had a basketball practice that night). We stopped at Mick & Jen's house again when we got to Logan, and ate dinner and hung out with them for a while. It was nice to relax and catch up with them. Our kids get along so good, and I'm always grateful for opportunities for the boys to spend time with their cousins!

That night, we drove back to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Tremonton, and we watched the light show at the Tremonton Center. I love it so much! I like how they add new songs and new light displays every year to it. It's a fabulous half-hour show! My favorite is "Blue Christmas" by Elvis, and I'm glad that is one song that has remained every year.

The boys worked on a puzzle while we were at Grandma's that Grandpa had gotten for Christmas of Ralph and scenes from the movie "A Christmas Story". We left their house on Tuesday afternoon, but were unable to finish the puzzle before we left. My mom texted me a few days later to say it was finally done and that my dad had actually helped her put it together, too! ;)

Josh was able to figure out the whole DVD sound issue in the car, so thankfully the boys were able to watch the newest Hobbit movie with sound being transmitted through the radio's speakers on the 4 1/2 hour drive back to Salmon!

This was our only trip we took over Christmas Break this year, and it was a good one. We were so glad to spend quality time with members of both of our families, creating lasting memories playing and skiing together!